Death Korps Siege Regiment Pt 4: Heavy Support, Lords of War & Detachments
Hey everyone, Reecius here to finish up our review of the Death Korps Siege Regiment. Check out the Tactics Corner for more great reviews!
Heavy Support
Thunderer Siege Tank
This has always been a favorite tank of mine! Tanks in general struggle in this edition that favors MCs, but, I really like this little guy. He’s a Demolisher, but cheaper, with no extra weapons and no turret. Think of a Vindicator with Heavy, and better armor. So, he has all of the benefits and drawbacks you’d expect from this type of tank. The Demolisher cannon is not bad at all, and packs a mighty wallop, but, you won’t see him too often in a truly competitive list. For fun though, all day! I give mine a Dozer Blade as with his 24″ range, you will often have to go through cover, and then call it a day. At 145pts, he’s a good value.
Leman Russ Squadron
Not much to report here. Same as the Astra Militarum codex with the notable exception of the Leman Russ Conqueror, which is much improved over previous versions. Unlike other Russ variants, this one is not Heavy but is in fact, a Fast vehicle. Cool! His Conqueror Cannon is strength 8, AP3, small blast, 48″ range. So, not being Ordnance means it doesn’t cause all other weapons to snap fire. Nice! It is also dirt cheap, at 115pts base. You can slap some sponson weapons on it for mobile firepower on the cheap, while still having that awesome AV14 front, or you can keep him cheap as chips, running around blasting stuff. I actually quite like this tank. You can give it Plasma Cannons and it’s still cheaper than a stock Russ, and you get 3 small blast weapons per tank that can move and shoot. Not bad! Alternatively, give it Multi-Meltas for a speedy little devil with 3 Strength 8 shots, 2 of which are (obviously) Melta. You can still move 12″ and fire them both at full BS. Lastly, stick with with Heavy Bolters and you get a lot of flak fire on top of the cannon, itself.
Death Korps Heavy Weapons Platoon
Old school HWS platoons. Would be an awesome way to get lots of heavy weapons on the table, but with the amount of strength 6+ shooting in the meta, much of which ignores cover, these guys never see the table. They just die too easily. That said, at least Death Korps units benefit form their slick morale rules!
Colossus Bombard
This is a great barrage tank! Plus, it’s a gorgeous model. It’s a Basilisk chassis vehicle (AV12/10/10, Open Topped) with a Strength 8, AP3, Pinning, Ignores Cover barrage weapon with a ludicrous range: 20′. Feel free to shoot your buddy’s table if he needs some fire support! This weapon is solid for Death Korps as they can otherwise struggle with high cover saves. Just protect it well as it is easily destroyed! Camo netting is a good consideration here. But, in general terms, it’s very straightforward. Try to hide it and blast MEQ units off of objectives. Profit! For 140pts, you really can’t go wrong with 1 or two of these in your army, and they do come in batteries of up to 3.
Heavy Artillery battery
You can really pack a wallop with this part of the Death Korps! Again, the inability to issue an ignores cover order is a bummer, but you can try and get it through allies, such as using Tigerius and going for Perfect Timing, for example. The reason I bring it up is because Heavy Artillery are extremely powerful units. They’re toughness based, immobile artillery versions of well known Astra Militarum tanks, such as the Medusa, Basilisk, etc. but with 4 wounds instead of the typical 2! A unit of 1-3 Earthsakers is going to do some serious work! These are great for killing Knights, too, as they don’t get an Ion Shield save vs. barrage weapons. Honestly, they’re good for killing anything that doesn’t have a 2+ save! With the awesome Death Korps morale rules, they are also much less susceptible to the common weakness of Astra Militarum artillery units: running away. Still, these units get pricey, so sticking a leadership controlling unit in there is a good idea. This is a great place for your Commissar HQ to go, if you use him, for example. Alternatively, you could go with Medusa Siege Guns, which are brutal! Each is a 36″ Demolisher cannon! You can alternatively upgrade them to have Breacher Shells, which are 48″, Strength 10, AP1, Armorbane, Small Blast. Ouch! This is worth the upgrade price (5pts per gun) just for the increase range alone. These units are just so powerful, and with 4 crew per gun, can soak a ton of damage.
Lords of War
Death Korps Macharius Heavy Tanks
I quite like the Macharius tanks for Aesthetics (the Vulkan particularly), but in terms of power on the tabletop, they are at the lower end of the spectrum in regards to LoW. They’re reasonably priced, but don’t pack that great of a wallop, IMO. The Macharius Vulkan, for example, isn’t that much cheaper than the Stormlord wich has more Hull Points and can carry a ton of troopers, too. Hard to justify it. Of the options available, i prefer the Vanquisher for it’s versatility and reasonable price tag. We won’t dig into these too much as we’ve covered them before.
Detachments
This is where things get interesting! As this list was written for 7th ed, FW gave us some specialized Death Korps detachments to make some really cool, and specialized Krieg armies with. I dig it!
Krieg Death Rider Squadron
Of the two detachments, this is the one worth focusing on, IMO. Not only is it quite good, but it is very unique and looks like a blast to play! I know I want to give it a go. It essentially swaps Fast Attack for troops, and gives the compulsory 2 Death Rider platoons, ObSec. Cool! In total, you can take 1-2 HQ, 2-6 Fast, 2 Troops, 4 Heavy, and 1 LoW. You also get access to a special Death Rider HQ unit that isn’t half bad. Not great, but comes with Skilled Rider and some improved stats on the Officer, as well as the ability to issue orders. The real benefit here, is you get relatively affordable, fast, surprisingly effective calvary units that are ObSec to compliment the rest of your largely static army. Plus, you get an extra Elite slot, which helps to get another Siege Drill on the table! If I was to play Death Korps, this is how I would do it.
Gorgon Assault Squadron
This detachment is all about packing lots of infantry into Gorgons, as it allows you 3 LoW, 1 of which is mandatory, but both must be a Gorgon. Each can hold 5 units of 10 infantry, which the Detachment allows you to take!. The Gorgons get IWND when Death Korps are embarked on them, and the units assaulting out of them get Furious Assault. This is more of a for fun list and it would look awesome on the table! However, it is very expensive as you have to take a Gorgon and they aren’t that amazing, honestly.
Part 1 in the series, here.
Part 2 in the series, here.
Part 3 in the series, here.
List Idea
So, this is how I’d like to play them! I would mix them with an allied detachment of Scions to get some AA on the table, a cheap Commissar to help morale on the the artillery units. This army has some decent assault power in the Death Riders, but also fast ObSec, a ton of firepower in the artillery, some really fun units with the Drills that can be devastating if used well and with a bit of luck, and you get my favorite vehicle in the game, the Vulture, for some awesome AA. In all, this is a fun, well rounded list that I want to try out in the near future!
Death Korps
HQ
Death Rider Command: P.Axe
Elites
Combat Engineers x 10: H.Flamer, M.Guns x 2, M.Bombs
Breaching Drill
Combat Engineers x 10: H.Flamer, M.Guns x 2, M.Bombs
Breaching Drill
Quad Guns
Rapier Battery
Fast Attack
Death Riders: P.Axe
Death Riders: P.Axe
Colossus
Medusa Battery: Breacher Shells
Fortification
Aegis: Comms Relay
Scions
HQ
Commissar Lord
Troops
Scions: P.Guns
Fast
Vulture: Punishers
